Straight Talk About John McCain on Immigration

I wrote this letter to "The Ledger," a Florida newspaper. Do NOT copy this letter to them. If you know of another newspaper, in any state, that would be a good place to send this, comment on this post or e-mail me with the newspaper's name/website/e-mail address. THANKS!

John McCain dubs his campaign the “Straight Talk Express.” So, I thought I’d take some time to give my own straight talk about John McCain on immigration.

McCain says that his immigration bill failed because people do not trust the government. Here’s some straight talk: his immigration bill failed because, in the eyes of us conservatives, it was a terrible plan; it was amnesty, no matter how McCain tries to parse definitions. McCain says he learned that Americans want the border secured first. Here's more straight talk: yes, we do want the borders secured, but that’s not the only problem we had with his plan. We don’t want amnesty, and he is still promising us that. He says that, in his plan where most illegals get to stay in America from day one, "they'd have to get at the back of the line" for citizenship. Here's some straight talk: when you're already in the Chocolate Factory, who cares about the Golden Ticket? McCain says that he would deport the two million criminal illegals immediately. Here's some straight talk: those two million criminals would be amazingly difficult to round up. A terrorist, drug dealer, murderer, or rapist is not going to come forward, ask for a card, and say, “By the way, I’m one of the bad ones.” McCain says he wouldn’t deport the wife, here illegally, of a soldier in Iraq. Here’s some straight talk: rather than exploiting that situation to justify compromising the law, why not ask how they managed to get married in the first place?

As a conservative, I must say that, for a straight talker, McCain sure thinks and speaks crookedly on this issue. Mike Huckabee has proposed a 9-point Secure the Border Plan, endorsed by Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman; he has signed a “No Amnesty Pledge”; he’s been endorsed by immigration hawk and former presidential candidate Duncan Hunter; and he has my support.